How often do you weigh in?

Toro · Post by **Toro** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:53 pm

I'm a life long daily weigh-iner. But I'm feeling this is not the right thing to do with No S. Like this morning, I was up .5 lbs after 3 good No S days and it got me a little pissed. Of course this is just stupid, because the damn scale isn't even that accurate.

So, how often should I weigh in? I'm thinking once a month but the thought of that scares the hell out of me.

hlidskjalf · Post by **hlidskjalf** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:23 pm

Maybe monthly could be good.

I don't really bother. I use the subjective "how I look in the mirror" approach.

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:24 pm

Try to do once every two or three weeks.. One week is good to, but make sure you get a reliable scale.. Every day weigh ins to me, are a big setup for dissappointment, and they don't help keep the big picture in mind.. You end up dissecting every darn thing you did "right" or "wrong" that day.. It seems unproductive and possibly harmful to a positive outlook..
So, personally, I am really against them..

I personally weigh on average, about once every three weeks..
Do what you feel will help your motivation stay in tact!!!
Good luck!!

And if you scale sucks, then do what I did...
Smash it with a sledghammer!!!!!
Heh heh heh!!!

Debs

srbliss · Post by **srbliss** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:55 am

My scale (a few cents to ESF) is due to arrive in 4 weeks. Right now I don't weight myself very often because I don't have a working scale (I broke mine weighing engines) but I bet I will checking my mass every morning once I have the equipment to do so.
Steve

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:08 am

Whenever I go to stay with someone who owns a set of scales, meaning every six months or so. I'm more focused on health and stomach size than weight, though.

mschalock · Post by **mschalock** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:31 pm

I weigh once a week. Any more than that makes me discouraged. I'm pretty close to my goal weight, so I only lose about a pound a month. If I ever lose that last 8 pounds, then NoS is going to be my way of eating for life. It's very freeing.
-Monica-

Post by **reinhard** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:18 pm

There are two contradictory schools of thought:

1) weigh often and keep track. You will see a lot of inexplicable fluctuation, but because you have a lot of data you won't be too upset by any one measurement. Downsides: this involves a lot of keeping track, you might still be upset by individual measurements even though you know better.

2) weigh rarely. Like once a month or less. Bigger time differences mean (hopefully) a bigger chunk of weight, random flux will be less significant. Downside: you're putting a lot of faith in a single measurement and random flux can still be significant, even at this coarser granularity.

Then there is the just forget about it and concentrate on your behavior school of thought. This is more or less what I do. I step on the scale every now and then out of curiosity, but it's not regular, and I don't express my goals in terms of scale numbers.

Reinhard

hexagon · Post by **hexagon** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:03 pm

Toro,

I saw this recently:

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/115/111806

It says frequent weigh-ins seem to be correlated with more weight loss. I haven't personally looked up the original publication, so I cannot vouch for the validity of this conclusion (I haven't inspected their statistical methods, etc. etc.).

I'd say as with most aspects of weight loss, it depends upon you. I personally do it because I like numbers, but I don't get sad if it goes up by a pound or so now and then, as fluctuations are normal. I'm just happy to see that the ballpark number is going down. Of course, if a weight increase of 0.5 pounds triggers a miserable episode of self-flagellation, then probably it is better for you not to track it all of the time.

-H

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:12 pm

I'm with the "weigh often and keep track over time" school. I use a web site to track my daily weight (when I remember to, anyway. I use physicsdiet.com, there's also fitday.com and others). Sure, there are some annoying fluctuations (I'm pretty sure I didn't really gain five pounds between Sunday and Monday!) but it's handy for keeping things in perspective and reminding me that my weight is still on an overall trend of "down" even if it swings up a little now and then. It's a much more immediate kind of feedback/encouragement than waiting for my pants size to go down.

But there's something to be said for monthly weigh-ins too. Weekly ones seem like an iffy idea to me...most people say the fastest healthy weight loss is 1.5 pounds per week, and daily fluctuations are often more than that, so if you only weigh once a week, you could be angsting all week on bad data instead of just a day or two.

Like just about everything in dieting, it depends on the individual.

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:37 am

I haven't changed weight since I started. I have, however, made visible gains in muscle. By inference, I have therefore lost fat.

That's my logic, and I'm sticking to it.

MerryKat · Post by **MerryKat** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:48 am

I am a daily weigher as I like to see the fluctuations that happen within a week. The only weight I track is my weekly weight (Thursday morning WI for me).

I do not find myself becoming upset over slight gains (unless I know I binged the day before and then it is just frustration with myself).